Desi society today is defined by its diversity, cultural traditions and hard-working attitude towards life. Indeed, Desi's, defined broadly as the peoples and diasporas of South Asia and their cultural communities abroad, are very successful as a group.
In Britain, the US, Australia and Canada for example, Desi communities consistently rank among the highest earning and most well-educated populations. In Britain, Desi's regularly feature as a prominent business community, and out perform other groups in ratings of educational attainment and income, second only to the mainstream, White-British populace.
Despite this, Desi society has lost its sense of community. Pettiness and selfish ambition have governed much of the social-relational approach of Desi's in many societies around the world, and none more so than in our traditional homelands.
In India, for example, its not uncommon for people to simply throw trash to the ground, irrespective of where that is exactly. You are not pressed to go very far before you see literal mounds of garbage piled up on a corner, or of men spitting, urinating and in many cases, openly defecating in public.
Of course, this is not a phenomenon confined to India, or of greater South Asia even. A lack of discernible and reliable sanitation is a problem encountered in many developing countries, and the almost complete lack of accountability on part of municipal authorities to clear and maintain sanitation cannot and must not escape scrutiny here.
But what these attitudes towards the environment and the local community reveal is an almost non-existent feeling of mutual obligation. In Desi society, the family and the household are the supreme unit of measurement. The community only exists when going to the Mandir, Mosque, Gurudwara, Temple, Church or other religious sites. Otherwise, its almost permissible by the standards adopted by the proverbial 'Desi' to disregard completely the obligations we should have between one another.
I refer to this phenomenon as the bastardisation of desi identity. Whereby no sense of community or of engagement and obligation to each other permeates so heavily in our psyche, that to even consider being responsible by others is frowned upon and discouraged. To simply throw your trash in the bin, as a rule, is therefore sidelined because 'everyone else simply throws it onto the street'.
The truly shameful thing is, that these behaviours reflect a deepening and resounding disconnect from the realities of society. I have often termed India a 'libertarian's dream' because no real rules and laws are properly observed. By this, people tend to do whatever they really want to, and if this means urinating on an open street, so be it.
But a more suitably apt example may be: urinating on an open street, because the public toilets aren't maintained or clean' - the street becomes the only suitable place to answer nature's call.
What Desi communities in other countries prove is that when the basic needs of people are met, and if the conditions in which a society is built are supportive of that growth, true and genuine human connection is possible. Desi's in the West resoundingly prove this point: the sheer number of successful individuals within the community in these settings is testament to this fact.
In Fiji too, despite the insurmountable odds that stood in our way, the Indian community, by and large, banded as one bloc to fight oppression, injustice and a lack of economic and social opportunities to move upwards. This approach eschewed a new era of unparalleled economic growth for Fiji, as more and more Indians entered the professional class and turned the economic fortunes of those islands around. In many cases together with Indigenous Fijians and in some examples, alone.
Historically too, evidence of the sometimes 'unbelievable' are plentiful. The Maratha Confederacy represented the last politically significant time India came under unified (albeit, Hindu) rule. The Maratha years are often credited with being a time of considerable economic, societal and military exceptionalism.
Today's India, and by proxy, South Asia is a far-cry from this unity. The individual has replaced the community as the sole measure of growth, and this metric has brought with it a harmfully selfish politic which views any degree of communalism as detrimental.
What I suppose I'm trying to say is this: when Desi society works together, the outcomes and the opportunities we create are enormous and rich. We have proven that when we put aside our petty differences, we can truly make the most incredible discoveries, and contribute to furthering humanity's goals and ambitions.
Division can only, and has only ever done one thing: it destroys.
